We Have Been Providing Expert SEO Services Since 2007
How Things Have Things Changed In SEO
In early 2011, a group of savvy SEOs realized that they could rank websites quickly in Google’s search engine result pages by submitting low quality content in vast quantities, article directories sprung up all over the net that were full of low quality and illegible articles. Using these methods, SEO became increasingly aggressive, since webmasters had automated tools at their disposal that were capable of building thousands of links with very little effort. Webmasters were able to quickly rank poor quality websites so that they would sit at the top of the Google search engine results pages for very profitable key phrases.
To remedy this problem, Google released an update called ‘Penguin’. The goal of Penguin was to stop aggressive SEO from working, thereby ensuring that high quality sites would sit at the top of the search engine results pages.
Because of the implementation of Google’s Penguin update, not only sites that had engaged in black hat link building were penalized. Google’s update looked at the percentage of commercial anchor texts in a sites inbound links, if a percentage was above fifty percent of the overall profile, the chances were they got penalized. The focus of link building changed overnight, from a focus on sheer volume, to one of quality and diversity. Discounting Google’s “one size fits all” approach to handing out aggressive SEO penalties, the overall effect of this update is good for the SEO industry.
This article will detail three of the most effective post penguin link acquisition techniques.
1. Guest Posting
Guest posting has been found to be one of the most effective link building techniques in the post penguin world.
The idea behind guest posting is simple: find a thematically similar website in your niche and offer to write an article for it with a link back to your website nestled somewhere in the article. Your site will benefit by receiving an extra backlink and the website hosting the guest post will benefit by having extra content on it.
Guest posting can be effective but it has to be done carefully. Make sure your guest posts are of a high quality. If necessary, hire a professional writer to write the guest post for you.
Secondly, avoid posting the guest post on multiple blogs. Each guest post should be unique.
Finally, only post guest posts on high quality websites that contain high quality content. A guest post on a low quality website filled with spam can hinder more than it can help.
2. Infographics
Infographics, a special type of web graphic containing data and information presented in a visually interesting manner, have taken the internet by storm in recent years. When used correctly, they can help to build a large number of links in a short amount of time.
An effective infographic needs to be engaging, informative and well designed. It also needs to contain up-to-date, relevant information presented in a simple, easy to absorb manner.
Focus on creating high quality infographics about your niche that are informative and fun to read. If necessary, hire a professional to create infographics for you. If your infographic successfully captures the attention of your target demographic, it will quickly spread through your niche and you will receive a large number of backlinks from websites posting the infographic.
3. Sharing Content On Top Social Networks
Social networking has changed the way we interact as a society. In the past, the only way to interact was face to face. In the modern day, people are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and more to communicate on a daily basis.
Sharing content to people in your niche using these social network platforms can be an effective way to build links. Create a Twitter account for your website and post tweets linking to your content on it, create a Facebook page and post links to your content on it, and so on. Over time, your content will be shared by users of these social networking sites and your website will gain additional backlinks.
It’s important to note that the success of this technique is dependent on the quality of the content on your website. Make sure to only post high quality pieces of content to social networking platforms as they are most likely to be shared amongst users.
Conclusion
Google’s Penguin update changed link building forever. Previously effective tactics like forum posting, blog commenting, keyword stuffing, and more were made useless overnight. To make up for the loss of these techniques, savvy SEO marketers had to change their methods and create new ways of building links. The three techniques listed above are amongst the most effective in the post Penguin world. Make sure to implement them into your SEO strategy.
